Dec.04.2007 About body image
Rarely do I feel compelled to hop on the ol’ grandstand and, uh, grandstand about an issue. I’m not a chick. But a combination of two things makes me want to talk about something we address in humor with regularity here…body image.
So what’s spurring this on? A combination of two things. One, the recent controversy around Jennifer Love Hewitt and her claims that “never has a size 2 been mocked for being fat before.” And two, something that directly affects this site…we have ads running from Google for a residential treatment facility for women with eating disorders.
We make a lot of “fat jokes” here, there’s no arguing that. And we also have approximately 43% female readership, so yes, there’s a good chance that my writings are perpetuating some of the body image issues that women have. We make fun of everything here, taboo or not. Weight, illness, disabilities, race…it’s brutal sometimes, sure, but that’s what humor is. Or what it should be. And some people love it, while others don’t.
Lately, the issue’s been raised to me and I want to address it. It’s not misogyny, it’s not insensitivity, it’s humor. It’s not even necessarily what I hold as a personal belief. And maybe, since I’m a fit male who doesn’t have to deal with the physical pressures of society, what I say won’t mean anything. But really, you have to get your value from yourself. And if you determine who you are based upon me calling Kelly Clarkson fat or some other celebrity loafer who eats her way into oblivion, then maybe you need to reevaluate things. Which brings us to Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Someone please call the Dove campaign and make sure they throw some money in teen role model Jennifer Love Hewitt’s direction! After the size 2 never-been was photographed in a bikini last week—revealing some very un-Hollywood lumps and curves—her career may be getting just the bump she’s been looking for.
The newly engaged actress spoke out via her blog yesterday in response to the unflattering photos of her Hawaiian trip and tabloid buzz that she had somehow let herself go. “To set the record straight, I’m not upset for me, but for all of the girls out there that are struggling with their body image…. I know what I look like, and so do my friends and family. And like all women out there should, I love my body.”
This isn’t an issue about body image. This isn’t an issue about girls being comfortable about who they are. This is about one girl who’s been told she’s beautiful her whole life…one celebrity who’s famous primarily because she’s been waifishly thin with large breasts. Jennifer Love Hewitt is not a hero. She’s just a girl who’s been patted on the head since she was little and when criticism about her one unflappable asset, her body, gets thrown towards her, she loses all sense of what reality is.
Point being, don’t take my, or anyone else’s bullsh*t to heart. All you can do is be yourself and hope that you can keep bettering yourself, whether it’s physically or as a friend or an artist or whatever. And, for the love of God, don’t let this weak bitch Jennifer Love Hewitt become the spokesperson for “feeling great about who you are.” She’s absolutely the girl who’d have called you and other girls “Orson Welles” in her burn book.
Antispam word: Knock - shoulda been knockers!
If I knew where you lived, I would come whack you upside the head with a rolled up Maxim.